Arsenal
Arsenal To Launch €30m Bid After Wenger Identifies His Top Summer Target
Arsene Wenger has made Lars Bender his top priority this summer and will make a €30m bid for the Bayer Leverkusen midfielder at the end of the season.
The January transfer window is now closed but that won’t stop the newspapers from speculating ahead of the summer so we’ll bring you all the news and gossip. Today, Arsenal are linked with Lars Bender….
Arsene Wenger has made Lars Bender his top priority this summer and will make a €30m bid for the Bayer Leverkusen midfielder at the end of the season, according to the Express.
Defensive midfield has been a problem area for us for some time and we’ve been linked with a whole host of players over the past 12 months as Arsene lines-up potential long-term replacements for Mikel Arteta.
The boss delayed plans to bring in a new holding midfielder in January after Francis Coquelin impressed having been recalled from his loan spell at Charlton but with Mathieu Flamini expected to leave in the summer, Wenger is still on the look-out for an athletic midfielder this summer.
The Express are reporting that he’s now made Lars Bender his No.1 target and is planning to submit a formal €30m (£22m) offer as soon as the transfer window re-opens after learning that Barcelona are also eyeing the German international.
The Catalans are unable to register any new players until January 2016 due to their FIFA imposed transfer embargo but that won’t stop them from putting in the ground work for future deals over the summer, and it appears news of Barca’s interest in Bender has prompted Wenger into action.
It remains to be seen whether Bayer will be willing to sell the 25-year-old but I’m sure they’d sit up and take notice if we do put €30m on the table, and I think Bender would be a superb addition to the squad.
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I’m a big fan of Coquelin and hope he continues to impress during the closing months of the season but we still need to bring in another defensive midfielder to offer him competition as Arteta and Flamini just aren’t up to the job anymore.
I hope we’re able to get a deal agreed for Bender this summer but if not, then the likes of Morgan Schneiderlin or Ilkay Gundogan would be decent alternatives.
